To Be Taught, if Fortunate

by Becky Chambers

  ‘Oh, so you have actually read it,’ Corbin said.

  ‘Of course I have. I told you all to read this file ages ago so you could get a feel for her before she arrived.’ Ashby had no idea what Corbin was getting at, but this was Corbin’s standard operating procedure. Complain first, explain later.

  Corbin’s reply was predictable, even before he opened his mouth: ‘I didn’t have the time.’ Corbin had a habit of ignoring tasks that didn’t originate within his lab. ‘What the hell are you thinking, bringing aboard a kid like that?’

  ‘I was thinking,’ Ashby said, ‘that I need a certified clerk.’ Even Corbin couldn’t argue that point. Ashby’s records were a mess, and while a tunneling ship didn’t strictly need a clerk in order to keep its license, the suits at the GC Transportation Board had made it pretty clear that Ashby’s perpetually late reports weren’t earning him any favors. Feeding and paying an extra crew member was no small expense, but after careful consideration and some nudging from Sissix, Ashby had asked the board to send him someone certified. His business was going to start suffering if he didn’t stop trying to do two jobs at once.

  Corbin folded his arms and sniffed. ‘Have you talked to her?’

  ‘We had a sib chat last tenday. She seems fine.’

  ‘She seems fine,’ Corbin repeated. ‘That’s encouraging.’

  Ashby chose his next words more carefully. This was Corbin, after all. The king of semantics. ‘The Board cleared her. She’s fully qualified.’

  ‘The Board is smoking smash.’ He stabbed his finger toward the scrib again. ‘She’s got no long haul experience. She’s never lived off Mars, as far as I can tell. She’s fresh out of university—’

  Ashby started ticking things off on his fingers. Two could play at this game. ‘She’s certified to handle GC formwork. She’s worked an internship at a ground transport company, which required the same basic skills I need her to have. She’s fluent in Hanto, gestures and all, which could really open some doors for us. She comes with a letter of recommendation from her interspecies relations professor. And most importantly, from the little I’ve spoken to her, she seems like someone I can work with.’

  ‘She’s never done this before. We’re out in the middle of the open, on our way to a blind punch, and you’re bringing a kid aboard.’

  ‘She’s not a kid, she’s just young. And everybody has a first job, Corbin. Even you must’ve started somewhere.’

  ‘You know what my first job was? Scrubbing out sample dishes in my father’s lab. A trained animal could have done that job. That’s what a first job should be, not—’ He sputtered. ‘May I remind you of what we do here? We fly around punching holes – very literal holes – through space. This is not a safe job. Kizzy and Jenks scare the hell out of me with their carelessness as it is, but at least they’re experienced. I can’t do my job if I’m constantly worried about some incompetent rookie pushing the wrong button.’

  That was the warning flag, the I can’t work under these conditions flag that indicated Corbin was about to go nonlinear. It was time to get him back on the rails. ‘Corbin, she’s not going to be pushing any buttons. She’s not doing anything more complicated than writing reports and filing formwork.’

  ‘And liasing with border guards, and planetary patrols, and clients who are late on their payments. The people we have to work with are not all nice people. They are not all trustworthy people. We need someone who can hold their own, who can bark down some upstart deputy who thinks he knows regulations better than us. Somebody who knows the difference between a real food safety stamp and a smuggler’s knock-off. Somebody who actually knows how things work out here, not some blank-eyed graduate who will wet herself the first time a Quelin enforcer pulls up alongside.’

  Ashby set his mug down. ‘What I need,’ he said, ‘is someone to keep my records accurate. I need someone to manage our appointments, to make sure we all get the required vaccinations and scans before crossing borders, and to get my financial files sorted out. It’s a complicated job, but not a difficult one, not if she’s as organized as her letter of recommendation makes her out to be.’

  ‘That’s a standardized letter if ever I saw one. I bet that professor has sent the exact same letter on behalf of every milquetoast student that came mewling through his door.’

  Ashby arched an eyebrow. ‘She studied at Alexandria University, same as you.’

  Corbin scoffed. ‘I was in the science department. There’s a difference.’

  Ashby gave a short laugh. ‘Sissix is right, Corbin, you are a snob.’

  ‘Sissix can go to hell.’

  ‘So I heard you telling her last night. I could hear you down the hall.’ Corbin and Sissix were going to kill each other one of these days. They had never gotten along, and neither of them had any interest in trying to find a common ground. It was an area where Ashby had to tread very lightly. Ashby and Sissix had been friends before the Wayfarer, but when he was in captain mode, both she and Corbin had to be treated equally as members of his crew. Moderating their frequent sparring matches required a delicate approach. Most of the time, he tried to stay out of it altogether. ‘Should I even ask?’

  Corbin’s mouth twitched. ‘She used the last of my dentbots.’

  Ashby blinked. ‘You do know we’ve got huge cases of dentbot packs down in the cargo bay.’

  ‘Not my dentbots. You buy those cheap hackjob bots that leave your gums sore.’

  ‘I use those bots every day and my gums feel just fine.’

  ‘I have sensitive gums. You can ask Dr Chef for my dental records if you don’t believe me. I have to buy my own bots.’

  Ashby hoped that his face did not reveal just how low this tale of woe ranked on his list of priorities. ‘I appreciate that it’s annoying, but it’s just one pack of dentbots we’re talking about here.’

  Corbin was indignant. ‘They don’t come cheap! She did it just to get at me, I know she did. If that selfish lizard can’t—’

  ‘Hey!’ Ashby sat up straight. ‘Not okay. I don’t want to hear that word come out of your mouth again.’ As far as racial insults went, lizard was hardly the worst, but it was bad enough.

  Corbin pressed his lips together, as if to keep further unpleasantries from escaping. ‘Sorry.’

  Ashby’s hackles were up, but truthfully, this was an ideal way for a conversation with Corbin to go. Get him away from the crew, let him vent, wait for him to cross a line, then talk him down while he was feeling penitent. ‘I will talk to Sissix, but you have got to be more civil to people. And I don’t care how mad you get, that kind of language does not belong on my ship.’

  ‘I just lost my temper, was all.’ Corbin was obviously still angry, but even he knew better than to bite the hand that feeds. Corbin knew that he was a valuable asset, but at the end of the day, Ashby was the one who sent credits to his account. Valuable was not the same as irreplaceable.

  ‘Losing your temper is one thing, but you are part of a multispecies crew, and you need to be mindful of that. Especially with somebody new coming aboard. And on that note, I’m sorry you have concerns about her, but frankly, she’s not your problem. Rosemary was the Board’s suggestion, but agreeing to take her on was my call. If she’s a mistake, we’ll get someone new. But until then, we are all going to give her the benefit of the doubt. Regardless of how you feel about her, I expect you to make her feel welcome. In fact …’ A slow smile spread across Ashby’s face.

  Corbin looked wary. ‘What?’

  Ashby leaned back in his chair, lacing his fingers together. ‘Corbin, I seem to recall that our new clerk will be arriving around seventeen-half tomorrow. Now, I have a sib scheduled with Yoshi at seventeen on the nose, and you know how he loves to talk. I doubt I’ll be done by the time Rosemary docks, and she’s going to need someone to show her around.’

  ‘Oh, no.’ A stricken look crossed Corbin’s face. ‘Have Kizzy do it. She loves that sort of thing.’

  ‘Kizzy’s got her hands fu
ll replacing the air filter by the med bay, and I doubt she’ll be done before tomorrow. Jenks will be helping Kizzy, so he’s out.’

  ‘Sissix, then.’

  ‘Mmm, Sissix has a lot of prep work to do before the punch tomorrow. She probably won’t have the time.’ Ashby grinned. ‘I’m sure you’ll give her a great tour.’

  Corbin looked at his employer with baleful eyes. ‘Sometimes you’re a real pain in the ass, Ashby.’

  Ashby picked up his mug and finished off the dregs. ‘I knew I could count on you.’

  Not ready to come back to Earth? Jump into Becky Chambers’ Sunday Times bestselling Wayfarers series

  Find out more here

  WANT MORE?

  Join our online science fiction, fantasy and horror community Hodderscape for book recommendations, competitions and lots of geeking out.

  Visit our blog

  www.hodderscape.co.uk

  Sign up to the

  Hodderscape newsletter

  Follow us on Twitter

  @hodderscape

  Like our Facebook page

  /hodderscape